The executive suite at 24 Willie Mays Plaza must be a tense place right now. Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday he might punish "players and others" identified in the Mitchell report, and two "others" who appeared prominently in a bad light were Giants managing general partner Peter Magowan and general manager Brian Sabean.

Could Selig actually suspend Magowan or Sabean?

It is unlikely, but there is precedent. In 1974, then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for two years (later reduced to nine months) after Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to President Richard Nixon. Baseball also suspended the late Reds owner Marge Schott for one year for making racial slurs. She later stepped down under threat of another suspension.

Sen. George Mitchell, author of the report that excoriated the Giants more than any other team for enabling the use of performance-enhancing drugs, urged Selig to forgo punishing anyone now and look toward the future.

Selig is said to be mulling over his options. Even though he said he would act "swiftly," no decisions are imminent.

Magowan is out of the country and unavailable to comment, and a spokeswoman reiterated Friday that Sabean will not discuss the Mitchell report. The team's only comment was a statement Thursday that pledged support for Selig's efforts to rid baseball of performance-enhancing drugs and said, "The Giants accept our fair share of responsibility."

One thing Selig must consider regarding the Giants: The issues raised in the report are more complicated than the black-and-white summaries provided therein, and assigning blame could be tricky.

For instance, the report portrayed Sabean as a general manager who ignored warnings from former head trainer Stan Conte that Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson might be pushing steroids in the Giants' clubhouse.

However, several sources with knowledge of the situation told The Chronicle they felt Sabean was targeted unfairly because he did not have the final say on matters regarding Bonds. There also was a belief within the organization that issues of medical confidentiality, a strong players' union and a clubhouse culture of athletes protecting athletes would have made it difficult for Sabean or Magowan to challenge any player on steroid use.

The counterargument is that management should have booted Anderson the minute it suspected he was dealing drugs, but did not do so because of Bonds' favored status.

Former Giants GM and Sabean mentor Bob Quinn was among those who felt Sabean took too big a hit in the Mitchell report.

"Absolutely it comes down too hard on him because the ultimate decisions rest above," said Quinn, referring to Giants ownership. "He's a very honorable guy and he's also a stand-up guy. I stand by my statement that he's been beaten up too much."

The report quoted Conte as saying that in 2000 he did not confront Bonds about Anderson and fellow trainer Harvey Shields being in the clubhouse because he felt Sabean would not back him up.

However, one source close to the situation said, "Who was going to support Sabean? The owners? Major League Baseball?"

As for the latter, another source confirmed a story in the Mitchell report that former Giants assistant trainer Barney Nugent made an impassioned plea to Major League Baseball security chief Kevin Hallinan during the 2001 winter meetings for help in ridding the Giants' clubhouse of people who did not belong, including members of Bonds' entourage.

The source said Hallinan acknowledged he was aware of the issue, but baseball did nothing. Hallinan told Mitchell investigators he remembered no such conversation.

The Mitchell report suggested culpability by Magowan, too, reproducing a letter he sent to Bonds before the 2002 season saying the Giants would "work closely" with Bonds' publicists to ensure "proper access" to his associates, as long as they do not bring their friends into the clubhouse.

The starkest episode in the report came from 2002, when Sabean did not tell upper management or Major League Baseball about suspicions that Anderson was pushing steroids in the clubhouse, based on an unidentified player telling Conte he could procure the drugs.

Sabean told Mitchell investigators he was in a "difficult situation regarding disclosure of this information because, as a result of the clubhouse culture in baseball, he felt he could not risk 'outing' Conte as the source of the information."

Conte reportedly believed he could not legally divulge the name of the player because of medical confidentiality, and a person familiar with the situation said that without a name, Sabean felt he had insufficient evidence that Bonds' trainer was distributing drugs in the clubhouse.

One general manager who came to Sabean's defense Friday was Kenny Williams of the White Sox, who said it is unfair to chastise the GM in hindsight over an issue this complex.

"We are a fraternity of 30, and people really don't understand, unless they sit in this chair they don't know the difficulty in navigating through the many minefields that confront you in the job," Williams said. "If there's a manual, I haven't seen it. When you're talking about some of the issues with regards to this, there are no clear-cut answers in terms of how to go about solutions."

Williams said that ridding clubhouses of outside influences is "a lot easier now because baseball proactively set in place some of the current security measures."

Effect on Bonds

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